The Son of the Hafetz Hayyim with a Ph.D.
I happen to see the title page of an English and Yiddish translation of the Hafetz Hayyim’s book Nidhei Yisarel, not necessarily anything out of the ordinary. What I found interesting was that it was published by his son “Rabbi Aaron Kagan, Ph.D.” I know very little about the families of rabbis, but I found this interesting. It turns out that the Hafetz Hayyim has some family in America. Aaron was from the Hafetz Hayyim’s second marriage. He died in 1957 and is buried in Ridgewood, NY along with his mother. A picture of his tombstone and some more information about him can be found here. According to the title page he was the rabbi of the Hafetz Hayyim synagogue in New York.
January 11th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
The Chofetz Chaim’s did not have a son from a previous marriage named Aaron. His sons were R. Arieh Leib and R. Avraham (died young) from his first marriage and R. Aaron from his second marriage. His daughters were Gittel (married R. Aaron Kagan of Kovno) and Sara (married R. Hirsch Levinson) from his first marriage and Faiga (married R. Mendel Zaks) from his second marriage.
January 11th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Phil,
Thanks. I must have gotten mixed up by his son-in-law having the same last name.
June 28th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
for your information check this out:
http://kevarim.com/rabbi-aaron-kagen/#more-775